Across Canada, last year was a year of fire. More than 44 million acres - an area roughly the size of Cambodia - were burned by wildfires in Canada in 2023. That is much more land burned than the 10-year average in one fire season.

The problem is that Canada is quickly becoming a place where there is no longer a fire season. Year-round fires are an increasing problem for most of Canada, and they are a really big issue in British Columbia, our neighbor to the north. Over the past decade, it has become increasingly common for a few fires to continue burning through the winter. Five or six fires that continue to smolder slowly beneath the surface in layers of peat moss in a typical recent year. Most of those fires eventually go out by themselves, but on rare occasions the fires provide enough heat that they flare into open surface fires if the spring is dry and warm temperatures come early.

This, however, as I have previously stated, is not a typical year. In January there were 106 active fires still burning in British Columbia and according to CBC, there are still 91 active fires in the province. Wildfire officials are especially worried because there is much less snow than is typical at this time of the year. Once the snow melts and the fires are able to get more oxygen from the air, they can reignite and flare into destructive fires once again.

The province is still reeling from the 2023 season which claimed the lives of sever firefighters in the line of duty, caused the evacuation of many communities, burned a record number of homes, and cause many disruptions in business and in essential services such as education and health care. The fires were, in part, due to an extended drought that has been worsening in recent years.

Residents of the province are already suffering from wildfires. Recently, when temperatures plummeted to -40 (which is the same in both the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales), smoke plumes continued to be visible in Fort Nelson, British Columbia. People in the small town have endured months of blue-gray skies filled with smoke. This winter residents have noticed that even snowfall smells like wood smoke.

So far there is no end in sight to what has become a lifestyle of wildfire as opposed to years when the danger grows and ebbs with the local forecasts.

I’ve been monitoring fire activity in British Columbia in part because traveling and camping in the province has been one of the retirement activities to which we have been looking forward. Back in 2006, when we had a sabbatical funded in part by a grant, we spent almost a month in British Columbia, visiting national and provincial parks, enjoying the scenery, and visiting rural and isolated communities as we studied and wrote on the subject of sacred places. Ever since that trip, I have dreamed of doing more exploring in the north. Our plans included driving and camping in Yukon and Northwest Territories as well. Such plans, however, have had to been put on hold several times due to the pandemic, the processes of moving, and our return to work for two years.

Now, we are reluctant to plan extensive travel because the wildfires are making such plans impractical. Last year there were road closures that would have prevented our visiting to some of the locations we want to see. It is hard for us to make solid plans for this coming summer because of the continuing threat that wildfires will make travel difficult and could result in us being stranded in remote locations. Time will tell, and the fires aren’t the only factor in our choice of summer activities, but it is looking as if the summer of 2024 won’t be our summer for a bit trip to the north.

Of course it is important that we remain flexible and open to changes of plans. Flexibility is one of the luxuries of being retired. We have more time, are able to take more time for travel and other activities, and can travel at a more leisurely pace than was the case when we were actively working with limited vacation time.

I know of no continuing wildfires still burning on our side of the border. The intensity of the 2023 wildfire season that caused so much destruction north of the border did not drift south, even though fire from BC fires drifted over much of the United States last summer. It appears that our next summer will also bring smoky skies to our country even if we have a somewhat less dramatic fire season than our neighbors.

US firefighters and resource planners are already taking note that the drought that has been continuing and is currently deepening in Canada has also had an impact on our side of the border. The north Cascades have far less snow than is typical and cities and townships are already warning of water shortages this summer. The amount of snow pack places a wide variety of different effects on the land and the people from decreases in water available for domestic consumption to decreases in the number of salmon that spawn successfully. The impacts are visible in stream and river levels, in the number and diversity of fish, birds, and land animals, and the availability of winter recreation opportunities.

Winter should be a time for firefighters to get some much needed rest and to make repairs and upgrades to equipment as they prepare for the coming season. To that list of activities, fire managers now have to add monitoring of the forest form last summer and fall that are still actively burning and which threaten to blow up into very early and very widespread fires.

So we will watch and wait and keep sniffing the air for signs of smoke as we anticipate the summer to come. Time will tell how much traveling and camping we do in Canada this year and, I fear, for many years to come.